The invention relates to an exit stage device for a packaging line.
More exactly, the invention relates to an exit stage device in a cigarette production line, of the type comprising a conveyor in receipt of finished packs from a wrapping wheel and designed to transfer such packs, proceeding face-to-face substantially in mutual contact one with the next, to a draw-off mechanism that removes the packs from the conveyor singly in succession and directs them toward a downstream machine.
In packaging machinery, the draw-off mechanism for removal of packs from a conveyor as mentioned above is embodied conventionally as an actuator, for example, a rotary actuator such as that disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. No. 3,899,863, which is located at the exit end of the conveyor and designed to remove the packs singly and in succession, carrying them away at right angles to the path established by the conveyor in order to effect their transfer, say, to a further conveyor.
Actuators of the conventional type mentioned above are beset by the drawback of not permitting accurate positional control on the packs in transfer, a fact which renders it almost impossible to effect quality control operations; such operations would in fact be best implemented on the packs during this transfer, seeing that practically no possibility exists of their being effected during passage of the packs along the conveyor, sandwiched together.
Accordingly, the object of the invention is to embody a device for the exit stage of a packaging line of the type outlined above, which affords the facility of implementing quality controls on the packs with ease during the course of their being transferred from the conveyor to a further machine or station farther down the production line.